Afghan civilian death claims bogus

Washington Post:

A U.S. military review of an airstrike last week in western Afghanistan maintains that only five civilians were killed, Pentagon officials said yesterday, a finding that starkly contradicts reports by the United Nations and Afghan officials that the civilian death toll from the bombing was at least 90.

The completed review corroborates an initial assessment by the military of the operation Friday by U.S. and Afghan forces in a village in Herat province. The review determined that 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, and five civilians had been killed, the officials said.

"We did not kill up to 90 civilians as has been alleged," one U.S. military official said. The review "comports with our operational understanding" of the events, said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

...

The use of airstrikes in Afghanistan increased tenfold from 2004 to 2007 as a result of a growing Taliban insurgency and a lack of adequate ground forces, said Anthony Cordesman, a senior military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Nevertheless, Cordesman also found that in many instances aircraft make sorties without dropping major munitions, suggesting that the military is using considerable restraint in targeting.

Mullen said Thursday that there is "an urgent requirement" to send additional troops to Afghanistan. "We're looking to do that as rapidly as we can," he said.

Mullen, who this week met with Pakistan's senior military leadership on a U.S. aircraft carrier, also said that the U.S. and Pakistani militaries must intensify efforts to crack down on insurgents flowing across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, warning of "syndicate-like behavior" among extremist groups in Pakistan's tribal areas.

We do need more troops in Afghanistan, but that will not reduce the use of air power or bombings. In fact it will probably increase it because there will be more contact with the enemy. The nature of the fighting in Afghanistan usually involves attempts by the Taliban to ambush our forces on patrol or in convoys. Air attacks are the most effective way to deal with these attacks and they have been devastating to the Taliban. Their losses have been significant.

That is one reason why the Taliban are working so hard to discredit those attacks and play the victim card. It is to the point now that when I hear claims of civilian casualties on these bombings I immediately suspect a Taliban information operation. They tend to act like we are deliberately targeting wedding parties instead of enemy forces.

It should also be noted that the Taliban routinely take human shields which actually does cause civilian casualties.

This report was suspect because of the claim of high civilian casualties. When they do have the formal investigation they should check the associations of those making the claim. They are either with the Taliban or have been intimidated into making the bogus claims.

BTW, this air strike was not a bombing. It was a special forces C-130 firing its cannon at a compound where people were firing on our troops.